Membraneless ethanol fuel cell Pt-Sn-Re nano active catalyst on a mesoporous carbon support.

Abstract

Herein, we report, for the first-time, mesoporous carbon-supported binary and ternary catalysts with different atomic ratios of Pt/MC (100), Pt-Sn/MC (50 : 50), Pt-Re/MC (50 : 50), Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 10 : 10) and Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 115 : 05) prepared using a co-impregnation reduction method as anode components for membraneless ethanol fuel cells (MLEFLs). Mechanistic and structural insights into binary Pt-Sn/MC, Pt-Re/MC and ternary Pt-Sn-Re/MC catalysts were obtained using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) methods. In particular, chemical characterization via cyclic voltammetry, CO stripping voltammetry and chronoamperometry indicated that Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 15 : 05) had better dynamics toward ethanol oxidation than Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 10 : 10), Pt-Sn/MC (50 : 50) and Pt-Re/MC (50 : 50) catalysts. In terms of the single cell performance of the prepared catalysts, Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 15 : 05) (31.5 mW cm-2) showed a higher power density and current density than Pt-Sn-Re/MC(80 : 10 : 10), Pt-Re/MC (50 : 50) and Pt-Sn/MC (50 : 50) at room temperature. The addition of Re into the binary Pt-Sn catalyst improved its electrical performance for ethanol oxidation in a membraneless ethanol fuel cell. As a result, the ternary-based Pt-Sn-Re/MC (80 : 15 : 05) catalyst demonstrated enhanced performance compared to monometallic and bimetallic catalysts in the ethanol oxidation reaction in a membraneless fuel cell.